Janice Irene Dorrain Nidonovan

Obituaries

She was born July 13, 1944, in Washington, D.C., to the late James Mabry and Marianne Donovan. She was raised in Trinidad, Colo., Santa Fe, N.M., and Tucson, Ariz., by her parents until her father's death in 1953. She was then raised by her mother and stepfather, William Doran.

In 1962, she married Paul Ciri (now of Portland, Ore.) and they had two daughters, Theresa and Kaitlyn, and a son, Michael. The couple divorced in 1972 and she re-married in 1974 to David Crepeau (now of Florida). They had a daughter, Angela. The couple was divorced in 1982. In 1998, she married her longtime friend and companion Kenneth Burch, of Juneau. She had four children and five grandchildren.

She graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a BFA in ceramics. She also attended the Museum Art School, in Portland, Ore., and Salpoint Catholic High School, in Tucson, Ariz., where she once had the honor of meeting Raymond Burr. In the 1960s she qualified as a licensed practical nurse and worked in the pediatric ward at the University of Oregon Medical School.

She was a longtime counselor to battered women at the AWARE shelter, created the "Mudlark Sampler" music program on KTOO-FM and participated as an actress and playwright in a number of Juneau/Douglas Little Theatre and Perseverance Theatre productions. She was also a longtime activist in the feminist, peace and justice movements, and a student of Celtic music, culture and history. In her later years, she spent many happy hours with her family in Juneau and maintained an interest in world affairs and the antiwar movement. She also helped to start a ceramics program at Polaris House in Juneau, and donated most of her ceramics supplies to them. She was a parishioner at the Cathedral of the Nativity in Juneau.